


No Walk in the Park

by Babykitsune9



Category: Bleach, South Park
Genre: F/M, Female Kurosaki Ichigo, He feels alone, Ichigo is a single mom, Ichigo lives in South Park, Ichika is Ichigo's daughter, Ichika is friends with Karen, Kenny McCormick-centric, Kenny is still cursed, Professor Chaos is cool., Protective Kenny McCormick, Protective Kurosaki Ichigo, Rukia and Renji are dead, butters is a good bro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:41:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29527950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: Kenny Mccormick's life was one never ending nightmare. What with being cursed to be more or less immortal. He had little to look forward to since he couldn't escape his curse.Until he met her.Ichigo was not only new to South Park, but came with her own demons. Add her daughter and his sister becoming friends and Kenny's at a loss about what to do.Kenny/fem Ichigo
Relationships: Kenny McCormick/Ichigo Kurosaki
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second ever South Park fic ever. So I'm nervous about posting it. 
> 
> I'm a huge fan of Kenny and Mysterion. I think that Kenny is trying hard to grow up to e someone that he and his sister can be really proud of. 
> 
> in this story, he's 18yrs old. He's still running around as his alter ego. And still takes care of his sister. 
> 
> Ichigo is 17, and is still adapting to the new changes in her life since the last war ended. She's a teenage mother to Rukia and Renji's daughter. She's alone with the exception of Ichi. 
> 
> So- let's have some fun with this, shall we?

This had to be the oddest thing that had ever happened to her. And that was saying a _lot_ after all of the things that had happened to her since becoming a Soul Reaper several years ago.

Still, this was pretty...damned _peculiar_. Even for her. She was still attempting to figure out what the hell she was even looking at.

Sure, she had understood her dad's choice to send her away and all. Especially after Rukia and Renji's deaths, not long after their daughter had been born. She hadn't taken the loss of the two very well.

And yes, she even understood that he had hoped that being away from Karakura town and all of the weird occurrences there might help her be able to grow up _normally_.

Just like she had always wanted.

However now that she was seventeen...she couldn't help but think that growing up a 'normal kid' was maybe a lost cause.

Which was only emphasized even more to her after spending about a month in the new town that she'd been sent to and attempting to raise Rukia/Renji's little girl, alone.

She had to wonder if her dad had seriously bothered to really _check_ out the town of South Park. Or if he had half assed things yet again. She was leaning toward a very hard, half assed at the moment.

Especially since she had already managed to survive two zombie apocalypses A.K.A 'pink eye' breakouts. A couple of hostile hologram/murderous pet attacks. She'd come across some fucking guy whom called himself Professor Chaos, and his weirdly informative little sidekick fucking up her back yard brawling with some other people- who all _had_ ridiculous 'hero' names, wore their underwear outside of their pants, and were _obviously_ insane no matter how entertaining she had found them.

Either way, she wasn't sure if she should step foot outside today. In fact she was seriously debating on grabbing her kid and going down to the bunker again.

The giant tentacle faced monster currently rampaging through the town looked sort of...like Aizen. If he had been totally incompetent and strung out on meth.

Not only that but she couldn't help but wonder if there was something in the water that seemed to draw such unexplainable things here? And _why_ no one ever seemed to remember anything happening once such events were finally taken care of?

I mean honestly, how many times did the people have to rebuild their homes and stuff before someone started to ask questions? Like _what the hell had happened_ to even need any rebuilding in the first damned place.

"Momma! I got my backpack!" She heard her little girl yell from somewhere inside of the house, jolting her out of her thoughts as she turned her head to see Ichi come skipping up to her. "I'm ready to go to school." The mini version of her two best friends announced proudly as she came to a stop right in front of her.

She felt her eye twitching a little bit in irritation at the unnatural creature currently stomping the other side of town into the ground.

_Of all the stupid things! Why now?_ She wondered as her blood pressure spiked dangerously. For fuck's sake, Ichi was supposed to start her second week of school today!

There was a loud roar off in the distance that had both her and Ichi turning their heads to look in the monster's direction for a moment before she heard the girl ask in a depressed tone. "I'm missing school again today, aren't I?"

"Yeah, sweetheart. It looks that way." She confirmed with a slight grimace.

"Bunker?"

"Yes, baby. We're going to the bunker." She said as she dumped what was left of her coffee over the porch railing.

"Can I watch Frozen?"

"Watch anything you want," She said absently before quickly tacking on. "Just stay away from mom's porn collection."

"Why do you hide that stuff in the bunker anyways?" Ichi asked curiously.

Which was a damned good question given the fact that the kid was four and had accidentally gotten hold of one of the video's already because she had forgotten to hide them somewhere else during Kisuke's last visit.

"Do you honestly think that your grandpa and uncles would let me live down owning such filth?"

Ichi hummed, accepting the explanation since her grandpa and uncles were all sort of... _weird_. And didn't say anything more about the normally taboo subject as she waited for her to take her hand so that they could go down to the bunker together to ride out the latest fiasco in peace.


	2. Chapter 2

A couple of days later-

Kenny was standing outside of his home, smoking while trying to unwind a little bit after the troublesome past few days that he'd had- being killed, again. Resurrected, gone through eighteen years of growth spurts in one day. His whole body was aching something fierce. His stomach felt as if he'd swallowed something lead.

He was also somewhat distracted trying to make some sense of the changes that he'd noticed when he'd been in Cthuhlu's dimension, when he first saw her.

In truth, it was difficult not to notice her. She looked... _stunningly_ beautiful to him with her delicate features, long glossy blue-black hair and startling, exotic electric blue eyes. She was dressed in old clothes, littered with paint stains and tears in them. But even so- she was one of the most shockingly lovely girl's that he'd ever laid his eyes on.

So naturally, he couldn't help but gape at her as he watched her walk past him and head on down the street a little ways before then turning off into the woods and finally disappearing into the tree line. Which of course meant that she either hung out in the woods like the goth kids sometimes did, for funsies.

Or she maybe lived- or at least had family or something that lived in one of the cabins built that way.

He usually tended to pride himself on knowing _everyone_ in town. He simply liked it that way. It was a sort of...an _imperative_ survival instinct to him now.

He liked knowing everyone who was old, who was new, who was dangerous to him, his friends, his family- others, and knowing who wasn't. This was especially true given his late night activities as the town's mysterious hero. His alter ego, Mysterion.

Mentally shaking himself, he finally managed to pull himself together enough to realize two things. One, was that he'd dropped his cigarette when his jaw had literally dropped open. And two, was that he'd be seeing that gorgeous specimen of femininity again _real_ soon.

Possibly in a few hours once the sun set and he started his nightly patrol. He still had that thing with The Coon and Professor Chaos later anyways. Maybe he could con the two idjit's into moving their fight over that way so that he could do some recon before hand so that he could quench his curiosity a bit.

He'd have to be a bit careful about it though. Otherwise The Coon might decide to do something incredibly stupid that he'd have to _kick_ the ever loving shit out of him for just to fix.

Sighing since his cigarette was lost before he could really finish it, he turned and wandered back into his house, figuring that he maybe had a few hours left to rest up a bit before he finally had to start his patrol. Until then, he'd probably sit in his room for a while and veg.

* * *

She'd had to run some errands since the most recent attack on the town had been dangerously close to her bank and she had decided to move some of her money and stuff elsewhere to protect it from being ruined, lost, damaged or destroyed. Which would left her and Ichi in a really bad financial bind.

Luckily for them, that hadn't happened yet. And now that she'd moved some of her assets- it likely wouldn't happen in the future either.

Not only that, but she had decided to take up a few new projects to work on and had walked around town for a little bit so that she could find what she was looking for.

She'd found a couple of places here and there in need of repair. Houses, hotels, old closed down shops and stores, some apartment buildings. She was planning to look into a few of them already. But the place that had really held her interest was a little ways away from her place.

It was run down, looked like a rickety two story shed- it had shingles missing from the roof as well as a large hole in it too. And it had broken windows, a crooked door- but more importantly it had also had people still _living_ in it! Which was dangerous to them since they were exposed to the elements and such year round.

Not only that but she had thought that she'd seen a guy her age standing outside of the place, smoking. So if she decided to take on the project of rebuilding the place- she'd have to talk to the people living there first. Hopefully before the next weird monster attack.

In the meantime, she'd work a bit on converting the home out back behind into a functioning 'apartment' for someone to stay in since that was technically what it was for anyways. God knew that it had much too much space to be a home office of any kind.

And Kisuke and the others that came to visit her rarely used the place to sleep in anyways.

Sighing quietly, she took a moment to check the clock and noted that it was almost time for Ichi to come home from school. Which meant that she should probably get dinner started.

She was thinking that they'd have fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and some peas. Ichi might not totally appreciate her insane need to try and feed her yucky stuff. But dammit Rukia would roll over in her grave if her baby didn't grow up big and strong because of eating her veggies.

Besides, she liked some of the funny faces that Ichi made at her. They were hilarious enough to put on the internet and go viral. So she was going to keep feeding her little girl those stupid veggies before she moved on to something even grosser. Like gizzards or liver.

Rubbing her hands together she let out a small cackle escape her now while she was alone and her evil laugh couldn't warn Ichi of any sort of impending doom.

_Oh she couldn't wait._

* * *

He was the one to go and get his little sister Karen from the bus stop since his mom had called earlier to tell him that she wouldn't be home in time to do it herself. Which wasn't terrible or anything. He _liked_ his little sister. She was the only person in his godforsaken piece of shit home that he could stand.

She was such a sweet kid. Much too sweet to be someone who was blood related to him. And really, he liked her that way.

The second that she stepped off of the bus, he was down on one knee with his arms open for the usual greeting. And Karen practically jumped in his arms and hugged him tight.

"Hi Kenny."

He chuckled and took a moment to breathe deep. It was weird, he knew- but his baby sister always smelled like cupcakes. And with all the _bizarre_ shit that tended to happen in town and such, but he liked being able to identify Karen using his sense of smell instead of simply trusting his eyes.

"Hello princess." He finally said after a heartbeat of silence or two before finally realizing that they weren't alone. His eyes flickered to the other person and he blinked when he saw another red haired little girl standing there looking at them curiously.

"Uhh..." Was all that he could think to say as Karen wiggled out of his arms and quickly explained who the girl was in one big breath.

Apparently she was new to town, just like her momma. Her name was Ichi, she was four, and she lived nearby. And then she also asked him if it was okay if they walked her home since her momma was probably working at the moment and seemed to have lost track of time, otherwise she'd be there to get her. She also threw in that she and Ichi were friends now. And did he think that mom would let her spend the night with her during the weekend?

He didn't know what to say at first since he was sort of having an information overload at the moment. So he merely smiled awkwardly- trying his damnedest not to look like some psycho ax murderer when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and snapped his head around just in time to see the same girl from before jogging up to them.

"Momma!" Ichi shouted as she jumped up and down in place for a moment and waved.

_Momma?_ _She can't possibly be yelling momma to that girl, can she?_ He wondered curiously while he eyed the girl as she got closer to them. Giving him the perfect chance to calculate her age and stuff up close.

She literally had to be at least a year or so _younger_ than he was. And despite the fact that he knew all about unprotected sex and teenage moms. The subject was simply something that he'd never seen firsthand.

So this was...an unexpected turn of events. Shocking even, if he were to be totally honest with himself. But as unexpected as this information was, it wasn't terrible.

He watched the girl collect her daughter and hung back and observed while Karen was introduced to her. The first thing that he noticed about her- aside form her age, her looks and stuff- was that she was excellent with little kids. She managed to charm the hell out of his little sister in like zero point two seconds flat.

Which would have been alarming to him, if not for the fact that it seemed to come from years of exposure/experience at handling little kids.

Still, even so...he felt that he needed to observe her a little bit more. Just to be on the safe side. After all, he didn't want his little sister getting overly attached to a sexual predator or anything. Situations like that tended to suck for everyone involved. And people _were_ pretty nuts nowadays. So, yeah. Better safe than sorry.

"What took you so long to get here momma?" Ichi finally asked. The girl cringed a little bit at the question and gave her an awkward looking smile.

"I was fixing our dinner when I saw how close it was to time to pick you up. So I grabbed my jacket and shoes and then ran out the door. But I accidentally forgot to turn the stove eye down. So I had to run back and do that."

"Is our dinner burnt again?" Ichi asked as she gave her momma a withering look and crossed her little arms over her chest.

The girl winced a little bit as she automatically said, "No."

He couldn't help but laugh at how uncomfortable she seemed right then. There was no mask, no guile- simply someone who genuinely seemed... _nice._

He'd still check her out a bit before he let his little sister-

"Miss Ichigo," He heard Karen's voice cut through his thoughts like a knife. The girl bent down so that she and Karen were eye to eye as his sister threw a monkey wrench in his plans. "Is it okay if I spend the night with Ichi?"

The girl, Ichigo smiled, and his heart pounded in his chest.

"Well, honey...you'll have to ask your mom but I have no problem with you spending the night with us."

"Okay!" Karen chirped before then turning and asking him, "Kenny, is momma at home?"

"No. She had to work late." He said gently. Karen looked crestfallen for a moment before then asking him.

"Are we having ramen for dinner again?"

He cringed, but nodded his head and then flinched back from his little sister a bit when he heard her whine. It took him a moment, but he finally managed to say. "Sorry Karen, but it's all we can afford right now." At least until the food stamps that he had applied for came in, anyways.

"Why don't you come and eat dinner with us?" Ichi suggested innocently.

Kenny looked at the girl oddly as Karen's face lit up at the prospect of having something other than ramen noodles for once. His eyes flickered to the girl's mom for a second to see how she had reacted to the suggestion that her kid had made, and noted a small smile on her face.

"Yeah, why don't you?" He heard Ichigo say.

And he heaved a big sigh as he thought. _Well damn_. How was he supposed to say no? Especially when Karen was giving him that pitiful puppy dog look?

"Yeah, alright." He said after a moment or so of careful thought. "I just need to go by the house and grab something for work later."

Ichigo didn't say anything as she watched her kid and his sister grab each other's hands and jump around in place excitedly.


	3. Chapter 3

Kenny stared down at the pictures that Ichigo had on a shelf, and absently noted that she had seemed to be pretty popular back home. Not only that, but she had far more pictures of her friends than she had of her family. Though he'd found it pretty _interesting_ to find out that she had younger siblings.

Even if he couldn't seem to pick them out amongst the many, many faces on display.

Not only that, but in every picture there seemed to be a bit of a running theme. She was always in the center of everything. People cozied up to her on either side. They hung on her arms, or wrapped themselves around her body as if they were attempting to shield her from something that he couldn't see.

Yet they always wore such wide and happy smiles.

And then there were the wedding photo's. At first he'd thought that the girl wearing the wedding dress was Ichigo herself. They had a slightly similar appearance. But only just so. Upon further inspection, he'd found that the girl in the photo's was one of her friends from several of the other pictures.

Not only that, but the guy that seemed to be married too- looked almost _exactly_ like little Ichi. The kid had the same violet colored eyes as the girl in the wedding dress. But she had the same hair color, and eye shape as the guy.

_Are they little Ichi's actual parents?_ _And if so...why did Ichigo have her? Had she kidnapped the kid?_ He wondered idly as he picked up one of the better pictures of the couple together so that he could study it for a moment. He was pretty deep in thought, so he didn't really notice Ichigo sneaking up behind him until it was too late and she had taken the picture from him.

She didn't snatch it from him like someone else might. She just reached out and gently took it from his grasp, startling him slightly.

"I see that you're curious enough to snoop." There was no anger or censure in her voice. Nothing to indicate any kind of negative feelings rising inside of her at all. So he felt only a tad bit wary about asking her who the couple was.

"Who are they? The look-"

"Like Ichi?" She finished his sentence for him as she gently laid the picture back in it's place on her shelf and then went on to say, "Of course they do. They're her biological parents."

He blinked but tried not to let her see his thoughts show on his face at the confirmation.

"Why aren't they here?"

There was no mistaking the look of sadness and pain that flickered across her face at his question. There was also no mistaking the sudden change in her breathing indicating that she was beginning to panic for some reason.

_Does she have panic attacks?_

He frowned at her for a second before it hit him that the subject must be a trigger of some sort of panic attack and he reached out to grab her just in case her legs gave out. After all, he doubted that his little sister and Ichi would appreciate it much if he let her fall and crack her skull open on something.

He had a hold of her and was looking for someplace to have her sit down when her breathings suddenly evened out a bit and she rested her head on his shoulder for a second before then saying.

"They died about a year after Ichi was born and I was named her legal guardian."

Well that explained that question. But he doubted that he should try to pursue any others about the couple at this exact moment. Maybe he'd be able to later? Once she was more comfortable with him.

She patted him on the chest with her hand for a moment before finally pushing herself back away from him and giving him a slightly pained looking smile before saying gently. "I'm alright now."

She was lying to him. He could tell by her expression but he didn't have the heart to call her out on it. Not when she looked so damned... _breakable_ to him. He opened his mouth to tell her that he was sorry that his questions brought up some bad memories for her- but a loud shriek from the kids before they came barreling into the room, stopped him cold. Freezing the words on his tongue as Karen ran up to them and automatically latched onto his leg while Ichigo latched onto her momma's leg.

"I win!" Ichi announced.

"Nu-uh, I won!" Karen argued with her.

"I think you both won since you both grabbed onto us simultaneously." Ichigo said with a small smile as she put a hand on Ichi's head.

He mirrored her action with Karen and smiled a little bit when his sister giggled and buried her face against his leg as Ichi asked, "Is dinner ready yet? I'm getting hungry."

"Yes, dinner's ready. I just came in here to get Karen's brother."

"Yay!" Both girls shouted as the let go of them and then raced off to see who could reach the dinning room first. He could hear Ichi telling Karen that the room was _that_ way.

Leaving the two of them standing there awkwardly for a moment before Ichigo finally said, "We should go and join them before they make a mess of something."

"Yeah, we should. Lead the way, my lady." He said as he gestured with an arm for her to go on ahead of him.

* * *

Dinner was better than he'd anticipated it would be. Especially given the way that little Ichi seemed to fret about the food being burned. Luckily for them, it hadn't been.

He couldn't recall the last time he'd had home made fried chicken, but damn if he wasn't stuffed nearly to bursting. Karen was too if the way that she kept nodding off was any indication at all.

"Did you have enough to eat?" Ichigo asked as she stood up and started to collect the dishes.

"Yeah, it was really good. Thanks." He said as he stood up and started to help her.

She shot him a questioning look but didn't ask what he was doing. Not even when he took the dirty dishes from her hands and made his way to the kitchen and put them in the sink and then started to run the water.

"Umm..."

He looked at her from over his shoulder for a second and said, "You cooked. It's only fair that someone else wash everything."

"You don't have to do that though."

"You fed me and Karen. I _do_ have too." He said as he grabbed the sponge and put some soap on it.

It wasn't a very well known fact, not even amongst his friends. But as he'd gotten older, he'd decided on certain rules when he was out and about. He'd wanted to grow up to be someone that he could be proud of, and he'd felt that the only way that he could do that was to drill certain behaviors into himself.

Washing dishes when someone else had fed him was a form of common curtesy. Maybe even gratitude. And since he wasn't always that great with feelings, he figured that this was better than simply coming out and thanking her for her hard work. Though he would definitely be doing that too. Later. Before he left to go to work.

After all, she didn't have to invite him nor Karen into her home. Much less _feed_ them both when she hadn't been expecting company.

He felt her move to stand beside him and cast her a side eyed glance to see what she was doing, and felt his lips twitch a little bit when she picked up a dish towel, and waited for him to finish scrubbing and rinsing the first dish so that she could dry it.

"You're stubborn." He muttered as she took the second dish from him and then began to dry it.

"So?"

He shrugged, not willing to accidentally pick a fight with her or get her dander up by teasing her about being stubborn. Especially when he found that trait endearing.

They worked in silence for several moments before he couldn't take the quiet anymore and asked, "So...do you go to school?"

"Sort of."

He glanced at her again, trying to figure out _how_ someone could 'sort of' go to school since that kind of response could mean any number of things.

"Want to elaborate?" He asked.

"Well, I did graduate from school back home. But...the records and stuff were destroyed in a freak accident."

"Freak accident? Like what?"

"Like a gas explosion that took out several city blocks. Including the high school."

He turned his head to look at her, his expression a strange mixture of curious and worried. After all, strange things happened in South Park all the time. What if that freak 'accident' was something that could happen here?

"What caused it?"

"Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"Domestic terrorists."

He winced in sympathy since stuff like _that_ tended to happen a lot in South Park too. "Damn that sucks."

"No kidding. So everything got destroyed in the explosion, and the school officials that managed to survive the blast decided that those of us who managed to graduate should go through another year in a half of school. You know, just to cover our bases. We still get to graduate with full honors. Just a little bit later than necessary."

"Makes sense."

Because it sort of did. If the explosion had wiped out everything before some of the graduates could be input into the school's system- then that meant that there were a lot of people who were probably being 'graduated' when they shouldn't be and stuff.

Having her go back to school for a year in a half ensured that she retained any credits lost- or at the very least, regained them. And assured that she would graduate with others close to her age group.

"So can I ask you something?"

"Yes, I go to school." He deadpanned.

"That wasn't what I was going to ask."

"Oh...okay then. Shoot."

"Uh, okay. So, do you remember the attack that took place a few days ago?"

The question startled him... _badly_.

Especially since most people tended to 'forget' or repress any memories of the multiple strange occurrences that usually tended to happen around town. So naturally, hearing her ask about said things- nearly made him drop a plate in shock.

Honestly he couldn't really recall the last time he felt so startled by something. He didn't even have any past experiences as Mysterion to draw from!

He felt as if something in him shifted, and became slightly less balanced. He simply didn't know how else to describe it. It was just an _eerie_ feeling. Almost as if...

_Something just fell into place._ The words slithered through his mind like a snake, as he set the plate that he'd been working on aside and then shut off the water so that he could speak with her without being drowned out.

"You remember that?"

"Yeah."

"Which occurrence?" He demanded in a rough tone as he pinned her in place with his eyes.

She looked more than a little bit confused by the sudden change in his behavior but told him about several different incidents that she recalled _very_ well.


	4. Chapter 4

He left not long after that since he had a job to do.

However he decided that since Karen had fallen asleep after managing to stuff herself, that he'd leave her with Ichigo for the time being. So after letting her know that _someone_ would be by later to get his sister, he grabbed his things and walked out the door feeling fairly certain that the girl wasn't going to harm Karen.

Once he was out of sight of the house, he darted off into the woods a little ways and then quickly changed into his Mysterion outfit and then texted Professor Chaos and Coon his whereabouts. Followed with enough blood boiling fat insults to bring Coon straight to him with blood in his eye.

And where Coon went, Professor Chaos went too since the two of them often worked together. Despite The Coon's inability to play nice and _not_ stab someone in the fucking back whenever it suited him. After that, all he had to do was have a smoke and wait.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before the two villains came creeping through the underbrush towards his location. Coon and Chaos must have been out earlier than he'd expected tonight to get to where he was so quickly.

He could hear Chaos muttering and fretting from a mile away.

Some things simply didn't change no matter how old some of them got. And the fact that he could hear Butter's- re, Chao's alter ego- muttering and complaining about just about everything in the wide world...was not only funny as shit, but it made him feel just a tad bit nostalgic.

Seeing the two break through the tree line about thirty feet away, he pushed away from the tree that he'd been resting his back against and flicked his cigarette into some of the snow littering the ground and exhaled the last little bit of smoke from his lungs in a slow, drawn out breath.

His all black outfit coupled with the smoke rising into the air from his nose gave him a menacing look. Almost like a dragon getting ready to defend it's treasure.

He could see the way that such a sight seemed to affect Chaos.

After all, underneath that pro looking upgrade to his outfit- Butter's was still very much the _same_ weird teddy bear that he'd always been. Whereas The Coon/Cartman was _still_ the same foul mouthed evil douche that he'd always been.

"Mysterion you son of a bitch!" Coon shouted as soon as he noticed him standing there looking bored. "I'm not fucking fat!"

"Keep your voice down lard ass. There are people who live in this area with little kids."

"Fuck you, Mysterion!" Coon sneered at him. "I'll be as loud as I fucking want!"

"Uh...if there are little kids around then maybe you should be quieter, Coon."

"Shut the fuck up Chaos!" Coon shouted as he turned on his friend like a rabid dog.

Chaos flinched back from him a little bit and fell silent, though his expression darkened a considerably. Indicating that he was about to bitch slap the idiot if he didn't watch himself.

He gave Coon a moment to run out of some steam and started to roll his shoulders and pop his neck since he didn't like how his neck tended to ache sometimes when he was fighting. It was annoying.

"Well, I did warn you." He said as he stepped forward, his boots making the snow crunch underneath his feet as he moved to kick the shit out of the asshole.

Maybe if he broke Coon's jaw then he wouldn't be so quick to start shouting obscenities.

"I'm going to enjoy this more than I should." He said to himself as he made a fist. He could see Coon tense up and take a defensive stance. Not that it would save him any, he thought grimly as he charged the two.

* * *

Ichigo had just finished giving both Karen and Ichi a bath and put the two kids to bed. She was walking out of the bedroom when she felt something _odd_. Sort of like a tickle along her senses.

It wasn't like the uncomfortable feeling that she got whenever a Hollow was around. But it was still enough to make her freeze in the hallway and make an attempt to locate the source.

It wasn't terribly far from her home. Which was...a bit _alarming_ to her. Especially since she had Ichi and Karen to worry about. And after all of the weird stuff that had happened to the town so far, she needed to be cautious. At least enough to keep whatever it was from getting to close to her home.

After all, she had children to protect. And she would do so even if it killed her.

Taking a moment to carefully weigh the pro's and con's of leaving the house to investigate- she decided to go and check out the area and see what the hell was disturbing her.

Calling on her years of experience as a Soul Reaper, she moved silently through the house to grab her coat and a couple of little walkie-talkies. She'd leave one in the bedroom for Ichi to use if she or Karen woke up while she was out, and got scared or needed something.

Attaching one of the walkie-talkies to the waist of her pants, she then went back upstairs to Ichi's room and set the other one on the bedside table knowing that her daughter would find it easily and know what to do with it. And then left the room again, slipping her jacket on as she went.

She made a beeline for the door and then quietly pulled it open and then slipped out into the cold night.

Moving through the snow should have been a simple task for her given how sure footed she was.

However given the fact that she'd never really taken any time to explore the surrounding area around her home- it was probably more difficult than it should have been.

She fell into _two_ frigging gopher holes. Slipped down an embankment, and wound up getting herself wet in a small creek. Got irked enough to growl at an upset bear that she met along the way, and somehow managed to scare it away from her and then _finally_ reached her destination.

Luckily for her, the thing bothering her was stationary. Otherwise she and the kids would be in some serious trouble.

She stepped through the tree line to see a couple of people in weird costumes tearing at each other like animals. It took her a moment to place them, since she wasn't sure if she'd seen them before or not. But it turned out that she'd seen the one in the tail and the kitty cat Halloween mask the time that those costumed people decided to brawl in her back yard.

"Oh, miss are you out here again?" She heard someone say to her left and turned her head to see the tall blond guy from before standing there holding his ribs.

"You're Chaos right?" She asked, vaguely recalling his sidekick introducing him to her last time while he was having the crap kicked out of him.

He gave her a slightly pained smile and a small, curt nod. "Yes miss, I am." He said as she moved to grab his arm and help him over to a tree so that he could sit down, but he stopped her.

"How bad are you hurt?" She asked him, concern coloring her tone.

"I think that I have a couple of cracked ribs." He replied after a moment or so.

"Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"No miss. I'm just going to head home and rest." He said with a faint hint of an amused smile as he slowly released her hand and started to leave but then stopped as something seemed to occur to him.

"Crap, I can't leave just yet." He muttered as he turned back to the pair slugging it out and said. "I can't leave you here to break those two up. You might get hurt."

"Oh?" She asked, wondering what he meant. After all, it wasn't as if much of anything could hurt her. Not more than physically anyways. And even then she healed at an abnormally _phenomenal_ rate.

So she never really stayed down for very long one way or another.

Unless she caught a cold or the flu, that is. If that happened then she suffered endlessly.

"There's only one way to break them up at this point," Chaos said as he moved close enough to her to wrap an arm around her waist, causing her to yelp as he produced a knife from inside of one of his sleeves and then said softly in her ear, "Sorry about this, miss. Just stay still and play along. He won't let anything happen to you, I promise. _He's very_ _protective_."

"Huh?" Was all that she managed to get out before he then pressed the knife to her throat a bit. She felt the sharp blade nick her skin and let out a low hiss as he then shouted.

"Hey Mysterion! I got this girl as a hostage and I'm going to kill her! You can't stop me either!"

All she could do was stand there and think that this was the _lousiest_ plan that she'd ever had the misfortune of being dragged into. And she'd been dragged into some real doozy's before too.

Between her half assed schemes and some of her friend's- it was really a wonder that _any_ of them were still alive and kicking. Still...she went with it since Chaos seemed genuinely bothered by the fact that he seemed to have to do things like this just to separate the other two guys.

The guy with the tail and kitty mask was hit so hard that she actually heard bone snapping and he fell to the ground and lay there as the other guy- the menacing one in the black turned his attention to her and Chaos and let out a furious sounding growl before he then barreled towards them with blood in his eye.

She wasn't sure which of them was more worried right then. Chaos? Or her?

Chaos's arms abruptly dropped away from her and he literally screamed, _"Oh hamburgers!"_ in a panicked tone and then shoved her aside as he was tackled to the ground by the other guy. Who then proceeded to beat the ever loving hell out of him while she sort of scooted away from them a little bit.

She was totally taken aback by this crazy turn of events before finally seeming to recall that she was an _honest-to-god-super-human_ and then quickly scrambled to stop the guy from beating Chaos to death.


	5. Chapter 5

"Stop! Stop it! You'll kill him!" She shouted as she grabbed his arm and hugged it to get him to stop hitting Chaos. For god's sake! What the hell did he think he was doing? Chaos _was_ unconscious!

He stiffened and seemed to pause as he turned his head to glance at her from over one of his shoulders.

She couldn't see his face with the exception of his mouth and chin since his hood hid the rest of his features. But she got the distinct impression that he was furious. With her?

"Let. Go." He growled at her.

She glared at him, stubbornly and tightened her hold on his arm and then visibly bristled when he reared back his other hand and unceremoniously punched Chaos in the face one more time before twisting his arm and breaking her grasp on it.

"Hey!"

Once his arm was free, he rose to his feet in one smooth motion and towered over her. Rage, anger, and menace poured off of him in waves as he stepped close to her and then grabbed her upper arms when she went to take a step back. And he _shook_ her. Not hard, mind you.

But enough to certainly get her attention before biting out from between gritted teeth.

_"What the fuck are you doing here?!"_

She didn't bother to answer him since she doubted that he'd understand her reply anyways. Besides, what she did on her property was her business. Not his.

He growled at her and then released her, making sure to push her back a little bit so that she stumbled for a moment. "You could have gotten hurt! No- scratch that. You could have gotten yourself killed!" He shouted at her.

She blinked at him and wondered what he meant. Chaos seemed about as threatening as Chad was to her. But she honestly couldn't really say much about the kitty masked guy since he was down for the count at the moment and she didn't have a very good feel for his personality.

This guy though- reminded her a bit of Kenpachi or Ikkaku. He was pissed and intimidating as hell at the moment.

_If it comes at you like a bulldozer then it's probably bad for your health._ She heard Renji's voice say in her mind, causing her heart to twist painfully in her chest as she watched him warily.

Bottom line was- everything that had happened thus far left her trying to figure out _what_ to do with him.

She knew that she couldn't just _leave_ him as he was. He was obviously a loose cannon and could easily kill Chaos and possibly even the kitty masked fella if he decided to hit them both some more.

And aside from knocking him out, handcuffing him and dragging him home- she didn't really know what to do. He was pissed, sure. But he hadn't hurt her any. Though she was fairly certain that that fact _could_ change at any given moment.

Taking a moment to look him over, she noted that he was bleeding and stepped forward to see how bad his injuries were before she could stop herself. He went totally still as she moved and stiffened a bit when she managed to touch him. Yet he still let her.

"You're hurt."

"I'll..." He seemed to be struggling to find any words before then finishing his sentence with a soft, lame sounding. "Live."

"A-Are these frigging claw marks?" She asked incredulously. "What the hell were you fighting? A bear?"

He didn't answer her question. Instead he just stood there and let her carefully probe some of the more vicious scratches that he'd gotten from the Coon's sharp metal claws. Even he knew that the damned things had _torn_ his chest, side and stomach open pretty deeply.

He was bleeding all over the place like a stuck pig. Though his outfit should have managed to cover the fact that he was bleeding so badly, up. Certainly she shouldn't have been able to see how much he was bleeding.

Especially with such poor lighting.

"You need stitches." She finally said after another second or so of careful exploration.

"I'm fine. I don't need stitches." He said tiredly as he reached up and took her small hands in his own and moved them away from his body.

In truth he was planning to shoot himself in the head again to reset his physical condition since it was the fastest way to do so. However he needed to do something about Chaos first since he didn't actually want the idiot to die.

"You _need_ stitches." She said firmly. "And Chaos needs medical aid too." It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that he'd take care of Chaos. But she cut him off by saying in a determined tone, "So it looks like I'm taking you both home with me."

"I- _Wha?_ " Was all that he managed to get out before he suddenly found himself being tossed over one of her shoulders with a startled yelp before she then went to pick up Chaos.

He could vaguely see her tucking the other boy's heavy body underneath one arm and then taking a moment to adjust her hold on him so that he wouldn't slip and she wouldn't be pressing on his ribs. Once that was done, she took a moment to turn and see if the kitty masked guy was still there, and noted that he was MIA.

"Well at least I don't have to carry him." She muttered underneath her breath as the black clad menace seemed to realize that the other guy was missing and started to thrash, kick and shout.

"Goddamn it! Put me down! I need to catch him!"

Of course his thrashing and stuff came to a very abrupt stop when she slapped him _hard_ on the butt. He sputtered and turned his head and glared at her while his face flamed underneath his hood.

"D-Did you just smack me on the ass?" He squeaked out. His tone was laced with several different emotions at once. Anger, fury, embarrassment, and disbelief.

He couldn't see her cheeky smile.

If he had he likely would have been even _more_ angry and embarrassed than he already was. Especially when she smacked him on the butt for a second time in warning before she took off running through the woods, back to the house.

* * *

Thankfully she didn't fall in any creeks or gopher holes this time around. So she reached the house _much_ easier than she'd found her two companions. Which meant less jostling and discomfort for them.

She was very happy about that. Despite the fact that she could practically feel a storm brewing in the black clad menace hanging over her shoulder.

He'd stopped shouting and shit a while back. But that didn't mean that he wasn't still upset at how she was carrying him around. Last she checked, managing to toss a hundred and seventy pound male adolescent over her shoulder- was just asking for _trouble_.

Still, for the time being he was quiet. So she more or less ignored him as she slipped into the house and then carefully maneuvered the halls. And then the stairs up to the bedrooms.

She put Chaos in the empty bedroom across from her own since his injuries were less life threatening than Dark and Menacing's were. And then once she was done there, she walked over to her bedroom and pushed the door open with her foot and then unceremoniously dumped her new companion onto her bed.

He was up on his feet and in her face in a flash. And she reacted to him getting up in her face by jabbing him in the throat.

He choked and she pushed him back down onto the bed and then went to her bedside table and fished the handcuffs that she kept in the drawer, and then used them to handcuff one of his wrists to the head of her bed. Before finally walking off to go find her first aid kit, a couple of rags and maybe a towel.

He lay there wheezing for a couple of minutes, which was about how long it took her to find the stupid kit and then grab the other stuff before returning to the bedroom to see him stretched out just a little bit, trying to free himself.

"Stop that." She said as she moved around the bed so that he could see her. "Your only going to hurt yourself more if you keep it up."

"Uncuff me."

"Sorry, can't." She said with a shrug as she set the kit and everything else that she'd grabbed from the bathroom on the bed next to him. Totally ignoring the withering glare that he was sending her way. She started to pull things from the kit and lay them out.

"How are you feeling?" She asked after a moment or two of silence.

"Oh just fucking peachy." He growled at her. "I was doing my job, and now I'm clawed all to fuck, bleeding like a stuck pig- all over your bed, I might add. You'll never get those damned stains out."

He looked more than a little bit smug about that last part. Apparently bleeding all over her nice clean bed sheets was the highlight of his evening.

_Awesome._ She thought as she finally finished pulling everything that she was going to need to clean, stitch and dress his injuries and then reached for his shirt.

He jumped like a gunshot Comanche and yelled, "Whoa! What the hell do you think you're-"

She rolled her eyes at the stupidity of males and then smacked her hand over his mouth to quiet him and hissed. _"Shut_. _Up."_ While using her free hand to work his shit up enough to see his injuries. Despite his somewhat _girlish_ need to keep his shirt pulled down.

Honestly, did he think that she cared what his man boobs looked like? Was he actually willing to bleed out just to protect his fragile modesty?

_How ridiculous could one person be?_ She wondered as she finally tired of him trying to escape her and decided to _fix_ the issue the only way that she knew how.

She jerked him so that he was laying flat on her bed again and then straddled his lap. And then once she was sure that he wasn't going to die or something from a heart attack- she then pulled her shirt up over her head figuring that boobies were the only way to really distract him enough for him to stop fighting her.

She was right in her assumption. He froze alright.

Though she doubted that it had very little to do with the spectacular view that he had of her bra clad tits.

There was a heartbeat or two of silence where all she could hear was his breathing as she begun to clean and then stitch his injuries up.

She got through the first two wounds done. Before he finally seemed to shake himself from his funk enough to reach up and very gently ran his fingertips along some of the vicious looking scars that her torso was littered with. Asking her in a totally horrified tone, "What... _happened_ to you?"


	6. Chapter 6

His protective instincts could be a real bitch sometimes. Truly they could.

And yet...he couldn't help the burn of righteous fury that rose up in him at the sight of such grotesque and disfiguring scars littering Ichigo's pale skin. Beautiful and otherworldly girls like her were supposed to have good lives. Devoid of anything harmful or so debilitating, and cripplingly _painful_.

Sure, he knew that there were monsters the likes of which even he couldn't conceive of. But he always _hoped_ that girls like her didn't run into or fall prey to them.

Since people like her weren't supposed to know that specific level of suffering.

Hunger and starvation- be it physical or emotional. The way that it felt to fight and bleed time and time again for every little thing. Even the right to breathe. To exist.

Not like he did.

_Never_ like he did. It was simply much too cruel.

Or at least that was his personal opinion anyways.

"What happened to you?" He asked again, his voice taking on a rough quality.

She cast a quick glance at his face. It was still somewhat hidden underneath his hood and mask, but only just so. From her vantage point she could see his face a little bit better. And could even see his eyes.

They were a lot like her own in color. Though his were colder and more world weary than hers were. But they were such a pretty color, breathtaking in their intensity.

Having such intense eyes boring into her was sending a chill down her spine as she tried to focus on her task.

He waited for several more moments for her to tell him _something_ about how she'd gotten the scars before finally coming to the conclusion that she wasn't going to tell him anything. Sighing softly he reached up and looped a palm around her nape and simultaneously pulled her down while pulling himself up.

He felt her hands still, and rested his forehead against her own in a strangely tender gesture that he normally reserved for someone... _special_.

His heart thudded in his chest.

And he could almost swear that he could hear her own beating just as frantically as he took a moment to close his eyes and utter, "I'll protect you from now on. So don't be afraid of what goes bump in the night. I'll chase your nightmares and fears away with all my might. I'll be the strong hand that helps to support and guide you through your darkest days. I'll be your guardian, savior, and defender. Always."

The second that he finished talking, he then pulled her down just a tad bit more and pressed his mouth against her forehead and then tilted her head to do the same with one of her cheeks.

And since she didn't understand what he was doing and it came across as him trying to get fresh with her- she jabbed him with the needle that she was holding.

He yelped and let go of her so that he could fall back onto the bed and stare at her in puzzlement. "W-What the- Why did you do that?!"

"Because you kissed me...twice."

"It was just a-" She jabbed him with the needle again, not wanting to hear any nonsense from him. He yelped and jerked underneath her and then started swearing, _again_ before finally shouting at her. "Ouch! Knock that off! It hurts!"

"Then don't try getting fresh with me again."

"I wasn't-" She jabbed him again when he started to argue and he had to bite his lower lip to keep from roaring at her to _knock it the fuck off._ Before he did something that he'd hate himself for later.

He went totally still after that and let her complete her work in silence. Though she could sense that he was stewing. Finally she finished stitching him up and started to straighten her back. But had no choice but to stop when his arms- both of them- suddenly shot up and wrapped around her.

She made a funny squeaking sound as he flipped them so that she was pinned underneath him tried to figure out how he'd managed to slip out of the handcuffs. It wasn't as if those were toys. They were genuine steel cuffs! And picking them was next to impossible.

She should know.

She'd tried to pick them on a number of occasions just for funsies. Of course those instances almost always ended up with her having some sort of a nervous breakdown.

And Ichi having to call Kisuke to help her get out of them.

Which she _still_ hasn't quite lived down yet.

Feeling one of his gloved hands palm one of her cheeks, her eyes flew to his hooded face and widened as he gave her a smug shit eating grin before lowering his face a bit and saying softly, "Those weren't kisses. This is." And then took possession of her lips in one of the most hungry, sensual, toe curling kisses that she'd ever had before.

Honestly she had nothing else to compare it too.

All she knew was that it made her feel weak. It stole her breath and left her panting even once he rolled off of her and stood up. She vaguely heard him say, "Thanks, for patching me up. I appreciate it." As he slipped his cape off and then took a moment to drape it over her while she was still zoned out from being kissed by him.

Once that was done he then slipped out of her bedroom window and left.

* * *

He kept the sight of her lying underneath his cape firmly in his mind as he ran through the woods. His body ached. Not quite from his injuries- those only throbbed a bit. No it was another part of him that was aching.

And frankly he didn't really trust that part of him to not get him into trouble. Which was just one reason why he had left like that. Another reason had to do with the fact that hours had passed, and no one had been by to pick Karen up just yet.

Not that he'd really expected anyone too anyways. Even if he had texted his mom about where Karen was once she got home, the woman would probably be either too tired to go and get her. Or too fucking high to go and get her.

If his night had gone differently, then he would have gone and collected his sister from Ichigo's place as he was now. But after how things had played out earlier...he wasn't _entirely_ sure if she would welcome him back right then or not.

And he really didn't feel like being jabbed by a goddamn needle again. So it was best not to tempt fate.

Instead he'd grab his bag from where he'd left it in the woods, head home, change, and then race back to get Karen before morning finally came.

* * *

She was just stepped out of the spare room after taking care of Chaos. And was leaving him so that he could rest when she heard the knocking at her front door.

Heaving a tired sigh, because she'd literally been up all fucking night taking care of people- and it was getting close to morning now.

In fact the clock hanging on the hallway wall read that it was nearly five thirty a.m.

Which sucked, not just because she'd been up all night but because she had school in the morning too. However as tired as she was, she knew that whoever was knocking on her door now likely had something to do with Karen since she'd been expecting someone from the girl's family to come and get her for _hours_.

Shuffling down the stairs to the door, she took a moment to flick on the porch light. Reveling slightly in the very dramatic vampire like hiss that escaped the person on the other side of the door before she opened it to see who was there.

She was only a little bit surprised to see Karen's brother standing there blinking his eyes as if he'd just been blinded. But then given just how bright her porch lights were- it probably wasn't far from the truth.

"Kenny?"

He hissed again and put his arm up to block some of the light out before finally saying, "Hi. Uh, i-is Karen still-"

"Asleep, yes."

"Can I get her?"

"Sure." She said as she stepped back and let the older boy step inside of her home. Where once inside, he promptly reached out and flicked those _damnable_ porch lights out and then stood there for a second or so longer wiping his eyes and cursing underneath his breath.

"Jesus, those things are bright." He finally said once he was able to _see_ again. "Are you trying to flag an alien ship or something with those things?" He asked with a slight frown.

"No. Ichi and I sometimes like to play hide and seek in the dark. The light just makes it easier to find the house once the game is done."

He didn't say anything to that since those lights probably did make the house easier to find. He still of the opinion that she was attempting to flag an alien ship with them though.

"Play games like that in the dark often?" He asked curiously as he took a moment to look her over as she flicked on the kitchen light and then went about starting to make some coffee.

"Yup. It's the best way to train one's senses."

He hummed and cocked his head once she turned to face him again. His eyes lingered on her face for several seconds as he noted the dark circles underneath her eyes, and frowned. _Has she rested at all? Or has she stayed up all night to tend_ _to me and Chaos?_ He wondered as she stifled a yawn behind one of her hands.

"Are you alright?" He asked in concern as she shook her head and then started to move to the stove where she then busied herself with heating a pan. To cook? In her barely awake state?

"I'm fine." She said after a moment or so as she dug some eggs and other stuff out of the fridge. "Just a little bit sleepy."

"Then maybe you should go and lay down and get some sleep." He suggested. Honestly trying to be helpful.

"I can't. Ichi needs breakfast. And Karen might want something too. Besides, I go to school today." She said as she started to crack some eggs into a pan that she'd been heating up.

He visibly cringed and silently berated himself for everything that had happened earlier. And thinned his lips a little bit as he thought about how to make things up to her.

It didn't take him long to come up with an idea.

But it was iffy at best since he didn't know how well she'd react to it.

He'd still give it a try since he hadn't planned to go to school today anyways since he'd wanted to do some more work as Mysterion. But since he'd promised to protect her, and even left his cape with her as a sign of his favor...maybe his idea wouldn't be so bad.

He asked where Karen was, and after he got what he needed he walked up the stairs to collect her. He was as quiet as possible in collecting his sister, even though Ichi woke up and gave him a very dark glare, before rolling over and going back to sleep.

He had Karen in his arms and was waling down the stairs when Ichigo met them at the door with a plastic bag that smelled like it had some food in it, and a overly large coat.

"Here." She said as she handed him the bag and then gave him a second to peek inside of it before then handing him the overly large coat and then helping him to wrap Karen up in it so that she wouldn't get too cold during the trek home.


	7. Chapter 7

He was...beginning to have second thoughts about his plan. Especially since he'd been out in front of the school for the past thirty minutes, decked out in a fresh Mysterion costume, waiting for Ichigo to show up.

Some of the students- the girl's mostly- were looking at him _oddly_. And it was starting to make him nervous.

Huffing quietly, he tried to pay no attention to the groups of kids eyeing him like a piece of meat and whispering behind their hands. As he leaned back against the wall of the building and continued to patiently wait while tapping a foot against the ground in an strange rhythm.

He looked around the school yard anxiously for several moments before finally reaching for his pant's pocket and fishing out his packet of smokes. Figuring that since Ichigo wasn't there yet, he'd kill some time smoking a cigarette. It'd give him something to do for the moment at least.

And keep his hands busy a little bit.

He had just lit his cancer stick up and taken a drag when he spotted her walking up to the school. Exhaling quickly, he looked down at his cigarette and wondered idly if he should put it out. But figured that he had a few more minutes before classes started so he'd go ahead and smoke a bit more as he pushed himself away form the wall and quickly wandered over to the tired looking girl and stepped in front of her.

She nearly ran into him because she was looking else where. Which was...sort of funny. In a childish sort of way. But luckily she managed not too and was now just standing there blinking up at him as if she were confused about where the hell he'd just come from.

"W-What are you doing here?"

Under normal circumstances being asked something like that usually pissed him off. Sure he knew that most people probably didn't mean it the way that it sounded.

But he'd grown up in poverty.

As in he didn't even have two pennies to rub together.

He'd spent a _vast_ majority of his life being looked down upon, mocked, beaten black and blue and bloody, starving and a number of many other terrible things. In his experience when someone asked what he was doing somewhere- it _usually_ came coupled with an insult about how poor he was. Or was followed by some kind of physical altercation.

But when she asked it, in such a startled tone. He didn't feel the familiar burn of anger or rage like he had expected he might. If anything the innocent question coupled with her tone and expression was...fucking cute.

"I came to carry your books and make sure that you aren't hassled any." He said as he reached out and literally pried her books from her grasp. Which was no easy feat considering that she had a little bit of a death grip on them. But he finally managed to get them from her after she seemed to get tired of him attempting to loosen her grip.

"Jesus, you have a strong grip for a girl." He huffed in an exasperated tone.

"I lift weights." She deadpanned with a frown, idly wondering if she should really use that excuse to explain something as simple as a strong grip, as he tucked her things underneath one of his arms. And then took his cigarette out of his mouth and dropped it onto the ground and crushed it underneath his boot.

"You're lying again." He said.

"No I'm not."

He hummed but let the topic drop as he moved to stand next to her before asking, "What class do you have first?"

"Oh. Uh...English?"

"Which teacher?"

"Garrison, I think."

He chortled at the mere mention of the name since everyone in town knew that Mr. Garrison was a _real_ trip. Mentally anyways. He, however was a firm believer that Mr. Garrison was nuttier than a fruit loop. Honestly after all the crap he'd done over the years- it was a wonder that the man wasn't locked away with his very own form fitting straight jacket, yet.

Draping his free arm around her shoulders. He took immediate note of the fact that Ichigo wasn't protesting the weirdly protective gesture, as he asked. "Have you ever been to any of his classes before?"

"Not really. I was too busy getting settled in and stuff."

"Then this should be a real treat for you then." He said in amusement as he began to maneuver her through the crowded school yard. Using his body to shield her from anyone curious enough to try and get too close to her as they moved.

He saw Stan and Kyle as well as a few other familiar faces as they walked. And as much as he wanted to wave to his friends, he needed to stay in character. So he gave them a small nod as they passed them.

His lips quirking up a little bit in a smile as he heard Stan ask Kyle. "Dude, has hell frozen over?"

He vaguely heard Kyle reply with a 'maybe' as the two of them entered the building.

* * *

As usual, the inside of the school was packed with people.

Teachers. Faculty. Students.

Aliens...claiming to be exchange students? From Cleveland?

Yeah, he didn't know the story behind this latest 'alien' thing. But he didn't really care as long as he wasn't pulled into anything.

He shook his head and looked away from the alien that he'd caught eyeballing him and Ichigo curiously. Hoping that it wasn't trying to decide if it wanted them to be it's friends or it's dinner. That usually ended badly. For _him_.

Not only that but he didn't want Ichigo dragged into any cosmic nonsense either.

Instead he tried to ignore the alien's attention. As well as the loud sounds of talking, shouting, playful screaming and other stuff while Ichigo went through her locker.

Thankfully, she was fast about it. However despite that fact, it didn't stop either of them from being spotted by Cartman the second that he waddled through the door.

Mysterion knew that he was easy to spot in his outfit and stuff. An all black clothed person of his height and build was always easy to spot. Couple that with how _intimidating_ he looked. As well as the reputation that he'd earned as an ass stomping hero. And this fact was doubly so.

Of course that was just on an ordinary day. Today, he was more than a tad bit easy to spot because of Ichigo.

I mean, come on. He _had_ eyes. He knew that she was every perverted adolescent boy's wet dream come to life. So it should be understandable that they had more than a fair bit of attention on them.

He could see Mr. Macky and a few others peeking around the corner, down the hall. Spying on them to see what they were up too. Which was...shockingly subtle for Macky and his co-conspirators.

However not everyone was subtle with their curiosity.

And while he didn't normally dislike attention. After the third football player walked up to Ichigo and propositioned her for a romp underneath the bleachers. Which he _did_ take care of. In the form of breaking the guy's nose and sent him off in tears.

It became painfully obvious to him- that having so much attention- no scratch that. Having so much _male_ attention- made her very uncomfortable. Of course this was only compounded even more by the fact that Cartman came waddling up to them.

He took a moment to glare at him, before carefully pasting on a polite expression and turning to Ichigo. He tensed up like a cobra ready to strike, expecting all kinds of filth to come spewing out of the pig's mouth.

He was only vaguely startled when Cartman said. "Hello, miss. My name is Eric. What's yours?"

Ichigo turned and gave him a startled look and then closed her locker with an aggrieved sigh. "I'm not interested."

"Pardon?" Cartman asked with a definite bite to his tone, uncertain if he'd actually heard her right.

She turned her body so that she was facing him completely and gave him a look of disdain. "Whatever pissing contest you have with him," She jabbed a finger in his direction, causing him to cock his head a little bit as he regarded her. "Has absolutely nothing to do with me. So _don't_ drag me into it. And go measure your pencil dicks outside." She said that last part a little bit too cheerfully for his taste.

But he would admit, that insult to his manhood aside, the look on Eric's face was _beyond_ priceless. So much so that he actually guffawed.

He couldn't help it. If Eric had ever had a funny WTF look on his face, it was now. And he was laughing so damned hard that he was doubled over from it. However, it didn't last for long before he heard Eric snarl.

"What the hell did you just say to me you fucking bitch?!"

And he sobered instantly.

"I said, measure your pencil _dick_ outside." Ichigo said again. Her look of disdain intensifying tenfold.

Which was very impressive in his opinion, especially since sweet faced girl's couldn't take on such a frighteningly stormy look without panicking over wrinkles barely ten seconds later. Thankfully, not only could Ichigo pull the look off. But she didn't freak out about any wrinkles either.

He wasn't sure if that was good or not for a girl like her. So he just straightened his spine and waited to see how this little clash would play out between them.

Again, he expected all kinds of things from Cartman. Honestly he was one of the most _foul_ people that he'd ever had the misfortune to meet. However he wasn't expecting him to lunge at Ichigo after exchanging a few more insults with her.

He also didn't expect him to grab her by her hair. Nor did he expect her to react to him grabbing her in such a way by pulling a box cutter from somewhere on her person and using it to _cut_ the hair that Eric had a hold of and then kick him in the face.

Eric went down like a ton of bricks, with blood pouring down his face from his nose and mouth while Ichigo stood there with the box cutter in her shaking hand looking as if she wanted nothing more than to gut him with it.

He moved to take the boxcutter from her right around the time the principal came jogging up with Macky.


	8. Chapter 8

This was a first to him, he mused from where he sat beside Ichigo. Being sent to the principal's office when no one but he and Cartman _knew_ for certain that he was even a student.

Casting a look in Ichigo's direction, he found her sitting there with her arms crossed over her chest and her head leaned back against the chair with her eyes closed.

He didn't know what to think of her at the moment. He knew that she was pissed. But he couldn't really seem to pin point what pissed her more. Eric calling her names? Grabbing her hair? Or the fact that she had felt as if she needed to cut it just to get him to let go?

He was used to girls who primped and stuff. And yet...here she was. Without a damned care in the world while he could hear Eric shouting and squealing from inside of the principal's office. Giving them his warped view of what had happened, no doubt.

He was honestly beginning to wonder if she were just that brave. Or if she were an alien like the new 'exchange students'.

"Are you okay?" She finally asked. Her head didn't move and her eyes remained closed the whole time. Yet he could hear the underlying concern in her tone.

And it tugged at his heartstrings in an strange way. One that he didn't dare examine too closely at the moment.

"I'm alright," He said in a rough tone. "I should be asking you if you're okay."

"I'm fine," She said, finally lifting her head and opening her eyes. "I've had much worse than having my hair pulled before."

He knew that. And though he shouldn't have found the reminder of her scars comforting, it was. If only a little. After all, only someone who had gone through absolute hell could carry such scars.

So if they were a measure of her character and strength- then in his opinion, Ichigo was a motherfucking monster.

Sighing softly he reached out and carefully uncrossed her arms so that he could take possession of one of her hands. She didn't say anything in protest to him taking hold of her hand in such a manner. If anything she seemed puzzled by why he did it.

He might have started to open his mouth to say something comforting to her, but the office door opened and Macky peeked out at them, so he shut his mouth.

They were both ushered into the office. And once inside and seated- he made sure to firmly place himself in the seat between Eric and Ichigo just in case. As the principal started to chastise them both.

He got chewed out for freezing up instead of stopping the altercation like he should have. Which he sort of understood. After all, when decked out in his hero outfit he should live up to his reputation as a hero. Right?

However he hadn't expected Eric to be so bold as to grab Ichigo. He usually just ran his mouth and then waddled off to throw a tantrum.

He'd know better next time.

And there _would_ be a next time. He knew it for certain since Eric didn't let anything go. Ever. He knew this for a fact after he had mentioned Cartman's mom being on the cover of Crack Whore Magazine when they had been in the third grade.

Eric was still holding a grudge over it.

"Now, Ichigo, Eric-" The principal's voice cut through his thoughts like a knife. Snapping him back to attention so that he could listen. "Said that you said something rude about his...uh, 'pencil dick'."

"He called me a bitch before I said anything."

"I did not!" Eric said defensively.

"Yes," He said, deciding to finally chime in and come to Ichigo's defense. " _You did_."

"I did not! All I did was introduce myself to her. And she acted like a total bitch to me!"

"Because you were up to no good." Ichigo deadpanned.

"I was not!" Eric shouted at her. "I was trying to be nice! You stupid skank!"

"Watch your mouth Cartman." He warned.

"Fuck you, Mysterion! Just because she's your fuck toy-"

He shot the other teen a dark look that promised all sorts of violence. While Ichigo practically gaped at Eric in horror and confusion.

How did she go from being a bitch to a skank and a fuck toy? She didn't understand the disturbed boy's logic.

"Shut up Eric! And don't be talking about Miss Kurosaki like that!" The principal snapped at him, causing the pig to snap his mouth shut in mid tirade. But not before muttering something particularly foul about the lot of them underneath his breath.

Which caused him to 'accidentally' elbow him in the face in retaliation for the 'fuck toy' comment. Making Eric's already broken nose and his split lip start to gush blood again.

_"Hey!"_ Eric shrieked as his nose and mouth started to gush red.

"Sorry, arm spasm." He said without remorse. While Eric glared daggers at him and tried to stop the bleeding with the wadded up tissues in his hand.

The principal sighed at their bickering and started to massage her temple as Macky moved to take over for a moment. "Now everyone shut up! We need to sort this nonsense out!" He shouted at all of them.

Despite the fact that _none_ of them had been saying anything by then.

"Alright now, Ichigo go on and tell us your side of the story."

"I told..." She glanced towards Eric for a second before then continuing, " _Him_ \- that whatever pissing contest he was in with Mysterion had absolutely nothing to do with me. Don't drag me into it. Measure their pencil dicks outside."

"Mysterion is that true?"

"Yeah. It's what she literally said word for word."

"Alright, so she was being rude. But not really the way that Eric probably thought." Macky said in a thoughtful tone as Eric sputtered in outrage.

"Just how am I supposed to take being called pencil dick? It's not like its a nice thing to say! I mean it wasn't like she said, 'Hey man, you have a nice big dick. Really impressive. Let's get together behind the bleachers sometime'."

Ichigo scrunched her nose up in disgust and muttered, "Ew. Who would say that to you?"

"It's not supposed to sound like a compliment, you retard." He growled at Eric in anger and disgust. As if she would ever say something so stupid to Cartman. _Yuck!_ "The entire point of verbally humiliating you in such a way is to deter you from further conversation so that you'll leave her alone."

"What happened after that?" The principal asked.

"We traded a few more insults, and then he lunged at me and grabbed my hair." Ichigo explained.

"At which point you decided that you should cut it with a box cutter." Macky said, finishing the story for her and then sighed.

"Hey! She fucking kicked me in the face too! Don't forget that. I'm bleeding like a pig over here!"

"Yes, because you grabbed me in a threatening manner." Ichigo said.

"Because you didn't respect my authority!" Eric shouted.

"What authority?"

Mysterion and everyone else in the room looked at Ichigo with wide eyes. Alarm warred with pride within him as she repeated the question but got no reply from anyone before then continuing to say.

"You have _no_ authority here. Are you a teacher? A police officer? No. You're nothing but a petty, brat kid who's gotten away with far too much. You have _no_ authority over me. Nor anyone else. You have no right whatsoever to grab me. Threaten me. Nor say anything whatsoever to me for defending myself against you."

Eric sputtered again in disbelief.

How dare she talk to him like that!

"I want to make something very clear to you, Eric." Ichigo's tone took on a frosty tone that sent chills down his spine. "The next time you lay a hand on me, I'll _break_ your neck. And with the Stand Your Ground laws here- I can get away with killing you without suffering any repercussions. Do you understand me? There wouldn't be a single damned thing that anyone can do about it. Not you. Not the teachers. Not the police. Not even your family."

Mysterion had to tug his hood down a bit more over his face to hide his expression while everyone else gaped at her in shock and utter disbelief as she stood up and politely told the principal that she was going to collect her homework, get her hair straightened out and then leave.

Apparently is she was going to be attacked then she didn't feel safe enough to stay. So there was no need to bother with punishing her.

The principal floundered and made a funny face when she turned to Eric and very nicely told him that she was going to be dragging his overweight ass to court for assaulting her. And when he went to shout again that she was the one that had _attacked_ him and he was going to sue her- she decided to give him a reason.

She punched the loud mouthed asshole so hard that he flopped out of his seat and hit the floor dazed. After that, she politely bid them all a good day and then walked out of the office.

He was so shocked by what had just happened that he couldn't do anything but sit there and stare at the door once she'd left. The second that he realized that he needed to go after her and stood up, he was stopped by Macky calling out to him to wait for a second.

Turning, he looked at the man as Macky said. "Mysterion, if you don't marry that girl I'm going to be very disappointed in you."

The principal echoed his sentiments and then shooed him out of the room.


	9. Chapter 9

He hung out outside of the cosmetology building while Ichigo got her hair straightened out, smoking. So far he didn't really know _how_ to feel about what had happened with Eric.

On one hand- _holy shit_! Ichigo was one hell of a girl with one fucking powerful right hook.

He'd never met anybody before that wasn't cowed to Cartman's abuse almost automatically. And she'd not only kicked the crap out of the giant turd, but punched him out of his chair too.

So he was understandably _impressed_ with her.

Especially since Eric tended to get away with everything. Including murder.

And on the other hand- he'd apparently done a shitty job of trying to keep anyone from hassling her. So, he felt kind of crappy about that. And even more bad about the fact that she was currently getting her hair fixed over something stupid that never should have happened in the first place.

Just because Eric had a beef with him didn't give him any right to go after Ichigo. But now that he had...he would again since he was just petty that way. He'd probably make good on his threat to sue her too. Which was bad since his lawyer was ridiculously good. Even for a small, back water town like South Park.

Sighing as he put his cigarette out, he wondered if he should warn her of the impending shitstorm that Eric was likely to bring down on her. However all thoughts of warning her fled his mind once she stepped out of the building and he got himself a gander of her new hair style.

His mouth went dry at the sight of her and his heart raced in his chest as he slowly moved towards her to see how much of the length had been taken off.

Her long dark hair had been nearly waist length before today. And now...now it was missing almost eight- no, _nine_ inches of length and barely fell past the middle of her shoulder blades.

Which wasn't terrible since she still had long hair. But the way that it had been styled was...nice. Really nice in his opinion. The back fell in layers of feathery wisps that gave way to curls that fell fetchingly this way and that around her face and shoulders.

"Wow." Was all that he could manage to think to say as she ran a hand through her dark locks in a subconscious gesture to indicate her discomfort.

He caught the gesture easily and backed off a little bit and then said. "You look great. The new style is really cute."

"Thanks." She said lamely as he reached for her book bag. Because despite everything that had happened thus far, he stood by his pledge to continue carrying her things for her. And had even promised her that because of the whole 'hair' thing that he'd also be much better about keeping people from picking fights with her in the future.

Which apparently meant that she now had her very own cape/cowl clad shadow to dog her every step. _Wonderful._

The two of them fell silent for an uncomfortable few moments before he finally asked, "Are you done all here?"

"Oh, yeah. My hair is fixed-"

"You have your homework?"

"Yeah. Someone was asked by the principal to bring it to me while I was in there." She said indicating the building that she'd just come out of.

"Do you need to go by your locker again?" He asked as he reached out and took her bag from her just like he had earlier in the morning.

"No. I'm good."

"Alright, I'll walk you out of here and then I'll see you home. Then I'll go and get some work done."

"You know that you can leave now, right?" She said with a frown.

"Eager to get rid of me?"

"That's a loaded question and I refuse to incriminate myself by answering it."

He laughed at her quick response but didn't bother to tell her that she had already incriminated herself as he shooed her on ahead of him.

The walk out of the school was fairly peaceful. Though he finally did decide to warn her about Eric and the impending shit storm that he was going to bring down on her. Weirdly enough, she didn't seem very upset at the prospect of taking Cartman or his lawyers on.

If anything she seemed to like the idea of doing something utterly terrible to the prick. Though she didn't exactly bother to elaborate on what her idea of 'terrible' may be. So her plan was left to his imagination.

He came up with something along the lines of prison rules. Because that seemed to be the funniest thing that he could think of that would probably hurt Eric.

She did make a quick stop on the way home at a deli where she picked up some stuff for dinner for herself and Ichi since she wasn't planning to cook today. She even picked up some extra food and handed him some of it while explaining that the rest of it was for Karen and her older brother too. Just in case they decided to stop by later in the day.

Which was...weirdly sweet of her. So much so that he wasn't exactly sure how to react to her thoughtfulness. Not even once he'd walked her home and handed her book bag over to her so that she could go inside.

He stood there and waited for her to enter her home, before turning away and slowly starting to walk off when he heard her call out to him cheerfully, "Have a nice day...Kenny. Be careful at work."

His head snapped back around to look at her so quickly that it was a wonder that he didn't break his neck in the process as she flashed him a grin before then disappearing into her home. Leaving him sputtering but unable to voice any denials.

_Goddamn it!_

* * *

He was distracted for the rest of the day after that. So much so that he let several criminals slip past him before finally deciding to call it a day for the time being and returning home.

Karen would be home from school soon anyways and he knew how much she hated coming home to an empty house after school.

The whole trip back was spent with his mind going over various things, wondering how the _hell_ she'd figured out that he was Mysterion. What had he done to give himself away? Had she seen his face last night when she'd been tending to his injuries?

After all, it wasn't as if it were common knowledge outside of a very _few_ specific people. He'd seen to that personally the same night that he'd unmasked himself by hanging himself in his jail cell so that everything would reset.

Thus saving himself from going to jail for vigilantism and allowing him to continue his work fairly unhindered.

And he knew for a fact that no one that knew who he was would ever tell.

He pretty much had enough blackmail material on everyone to have them by the balls. Though he wasn't all that concerned about Butters, Stan, Kyle or the others.

His main concern was _Eric_ and his big mouth. But no matter. He had a plan in place just in case his old friend ever decided to run his mouth about his alter ego's identity.

If Eric ever made the mistake of outing him as Mysterion- he'd shoot himself in the head and then hunt the dumb bastard down after he outed him as the Coon. A murderer. And a select few other things that would destroy the turd's life in a _multitude_ of ways.

But that didn't really help him at the moment. Not with Ichigo knowing his identity anyways.

For the life of him, he still couldn't figure out _how_ she'd known that it was him underneath the mask and cowl. He was certain that he'd been careful. But maybe he hadn't been as careful as he'd initially thought he had been. Still...no matter how much he looked at things- it didn't change the fact that she knew.

So now he just needed to come to terms with that fact and figure out what to do.


	10. Chapter 10

He didn't see Ichigo for a few days after that.

And...he wasn't exactly sure if that was a good thing or not. All he knew was that outside of seeing Ichi come over to his house to play with Karen a few times, he didn't really see hide nor hair of her. So naturally, he began to think that she might be up to _no_ good.

Maybe not towards him specifically, but in general.

So after not seeing hide nor hair of her for nearly _three_ days straight- he felt like his skull was about ready to explode. Especially when Ichi was brought over to his house by Butter's- who was decked out in his Professor Chaos gear- without much of an explanation.

Chaos simply handed him the kid, a bag of clothing and stuff, and five hundred bucks. And then told him that he'd be back for the girl in a few hours. Maybe a day or so depending how bad things got. He'd probably wind up calling or texting him to let him know which one later.

He was to use the money that he'd just given to him to make sure that there were enough food and drinks in the house for at least three people. Any money left over once that was done, was his babysitting fee.

Of course, Kenny was very disgruntled by this. Especially since Butter's had used his most authoritative 'Chaos' tone which meant that he wasn't to be argued with or questioned.

And then there was the fact that he ran off pretty much immediately _before_ he could be questioned or argued with. Leaving Kenny standing there with little Ichi in his arms and wondering what the hell was going on.

"Ichi, sweetheart, where's your momma?" He asked once he'd taken the girl inside. The girl's face scrunched up like she was about to start crying and he felt the bottom go out of his stomach for a second in alarm. After all, he didn't know if this was normal behavior for the little girl or not.

When she sniffled a little bit as she rubbed at her eyes with her hands and said. "Mamma's sick."

It took him a moment to fully register her words, and when he did, he felt somewhat better about not seeing Ichigo lately. Her being sick would explain a lot. Including why she'd been handed to him along with a bag of clothing and money.

Though he didn't really understand why Chaos had been the one to bring the girl to him instead of her momma.

"How sick is she?" He asked. concern coloring his tone.

"She's really sick," Ichi said with another sniffle before saying sagely. "Mr. Chaos heard me crying when she fell and wouldn't get up. So he kicked the door in to check on us."

Kenny frowned at her words. But decided not to ask anything more at the moment when Karen came into the room and saw her. The two of them went to play and he sighed and went to put Ichi's bag away in Karen's bedroom.

He had a few loose ends here to tie up before he could go and check on her. He just hoped that Chaos didn't get a yen to set something on fire.

* * *

Butter's hadn't expected his day to take such a _scary_ turn when he'd decided to swing by the house and give the young lady some medicines and stuff to replace what she's used on him the other night.

And yet, after finding the young lady unconscious in the hallway with a little girl crying over her unresponsive body- he could hardly regret the way that things had turned out thus far.

He'd been understandably _shocked_ to learn that the little girl that he'd taken over to Kenny's was the young lady's daughter. Especially since the young lady was his age, more or less, and hardly acted like she were a slut or whore. She was simply too...kind.

Not that he didn't think sluts and whore's could be kind. They were people too so of course they could be. It was just very rare for them to be. However he knew that time and abuse tended to chip away at any innocence and niceness that a person possessed.

It made them angry, bitter... and downright _bitchy_ , to be totally honest.

And the young lady just didn't seem like any of those things at all to him. Of course he knew that it was probably because he didn't know her well beyond the other night.

But that was neither here nor there.

At the moment, the young lady was trying to take a bath since she'd vomited all over herself, due to her stomach being upset, while he'd taken her daughter over to Kenny's.

He had had to help her a little bit with the water and stuff, and was now waiting with his back to the ajar bathroom door- listening for any signs of distress or of her getting sick again. So far she seemed okay. She was splashing around a little bit. Though it wasn't the typical 'happy' splashing that came with normal bathing.

If anything her splashes seemed... _weak_. Which probably had something to do with her fever, sore muscles, and joints. As well as other stuff like dizziness and nausea.

"Are you still doing okay in there miss?" He called out, though not so loud that it could hurt her head any.

He could hear the water being drained out of the bath tub now as she called out, "I-I don't think I can stand up."

He visibly cringed a little bit where he stood. He couldn't help it, if he went into the bathroom to help her she might get mad at him for seeing her naked. But if he didn't do anything then she'd likely stay in there- wet and feverish- and get worse enough to need to go to a hospital.

"Oh hamburgers," He muttered as he carefully weighed the pro's and con's for a moment before finally deciding that he should probably go in there and _help_ her. "You aren't going to get mad at me if I see you naked for a minute are ya?" He called out.

"No."

He nearly tripped over his own feet when he heard her reply while going to get her a towel from the little cabinet that she had set up against the wall outside of the bathroom.

"Are you sure?" He felt the need to ask again, because he didn't want her to turn around and act pissy with him later for something that she said that she was okay with.

"Yeah." She said, sounding more than a tad bit tired to him. He supposed that taking a bath had just plain tuckered out her out badly enough to really _not_ care if he saw her naked.

He wasn't sure what to think of that exactly. All he knew was that he spent another minute or so swearing that he totally wasn't going to ogle her. It would be wrong to do so when she was so ill anyways. Besides he simply wasn't the type to take advantage of someone in such a way anyways.

"Alright, I'm going to come in and get you now. I've got a towel so you'll at least be somewhat covered up once I get you-" He paused for a moment and then looked around her bedroom, absently noting that she had left some clothing lying on her bed.

Which was a relief since he didn't like the idea of her being naked when she laid down in her bed. She was likely to get cold even with the covers pulled up over her.

"Do you think you'll need help getting dressed too?" He asked, feeling somewhat worried that she might. She replied with a small sounding no. After which he entered the bathroom and paused for a second in the doorway and felt his face pale in horror.

_Jesus!_ Why the poor girl was covered in horrible scars!

Gulping he took a moment to carefully examine the old injuries- and they were _old_. Some were so old that he calculated that they dated all the way back to when she was really little. But the vast majority of them looked as if they were only four or five years old at best.

His expression turned grim as he stepped towards her, his eyes flickering from the disfiguring scars overlapping on her shoulder, to some of the ones that he could see on her back.

Finally reaching her, he unfolded the towel and then took a moment to wrap it around her shivering body as she looked up at him. There was a bone deep weariness in her eyes that was unnatural of someone so young even as she said, "I know that they're ugly. I probably should have warned you-"

He thinned his mouth for a moment at the mere thought of her feeling subconscious over something that wasn't her fault was _inexcusable_ to him. So much so that when bent down and got into a good position to wrap his arms around her and simply muttered, "Don't worry about it. They aren't that bad."

He carefully lifted her so that she was standing before then sweeping her up into his arms and then carrying her into the bedroom where he set her down on the edge of her bed and then stepped back to retreat to the bathroom so that she could get dressed.

He was only in there for about ten minutes before deciding to peek into the bedroom and check on her since he couldn't hear any movement now, and blinked when he saw her curled upon top of the covers sound asleep.

The good news was that she was dressed. The bad news now was that he needed to rouse her, give her some medicine and then tuck her in so that she could rest for a little while.

Sighing, he scrubbed his face with his hands and then turned to her medicine cabinet and opened it so that he could see if she had any fever reducers. She did, thank god.

And in plain sight too. Which was great since it also looked like she was running her own pharmacy too. Honestly there were so many pill bottles with her name on them that it was just crazy.

"Well, how on earth does she keep any of these straight?" He muttered to himself as he started to pull random bottles from their place and look at them out of curiosity. And if he didn't know what something was- then he looked up the information on it.

Turns out that Ichigo had sleeping medicines, anti depressants, epilepsy meds, pain meds- the hardcore kind like Vicodin and a few others.

There was regular cold and flu medicine, sinus medicine- he'd probably need to give her a little bit of some of those too. Stomach medication, blood pressure pills, and medicines that people took after having organ transplant surgeries.

He understood the reason behind why she had that last one far more than he understood why she had some of the others. After all, even he wasn't so stupid that he didn't at least realize that she'd probably had to have surgeries just to survive. Some of those scars covered _vital_ area's where some of her organs were.

Her heart, stomach, lungs, liver and kidney's... so the fact that she had that one med totally made sense to him.

But he didn't question some of this too much due to the fact that she had to be really sick to need even half of it. And he could tell from some of the bottles just _what_ was still in use and what wasn't.

Figuring that he'd wasted enough time snooping, he put everything back in it's exact place with the exception of the cold/flu medicine and the sinus medicine. And then went back into the bedroom so that he could finish up putting her to bed. 

* * *

It was late-ish when he finally managed to escape the house so that he could go back to work. And he'd stayed and watched both Karen and Ichi most of the afternoon.

Luckily, his mom hadn't had to work late today. So she was home on time for once and was currently sitting down with the two girls, playing tea party.

With _snacks_.

He wasn't sure what seemed to delight his mom more, the fact that she had something to munch on and some tea to drink while she relaxed after a long day. Or entertainment in the guise of two _very_ cute little imps.

Either way, the kids were in fairly good hands.

The situation had already been explained to his mom, and she didn't seem to mind that Ichi was staying with them for possibly a day or two. So he didn't really have much to worry about at the moment.

He had just slipped out of his bedroom window and slowly began his trek to Ichigo's house to check on her and Chaos both.

It took him a few minutes since the trek through the woods could be a pain in the ass sometimes. But when he didn't really know what to expect- it was best to err on the side of caution.

Especially after the beating he'd given Chaos several nights back.

He didn't know if Chaos was holding any kind of a grudge or not. And he wasn't really that keen to find out since the other teen had managed to make himself a couple of things loaded with flesh eating acid.

He knew this for certain because the jerk had killed him with it _twice_ now. And the only reason that he hadn't used it on him the other night was because he had disarmed him and tossed the weapons out into the woods somewhere where they were hopefully lost.

Moving closer to the house, he could easily see Chaos working on the front door of the house and frowned a little bit. If he was working on the door...then Ichi hadn't been embellishing any when she'd said that he'd kicked the damn thing down.

Figuring that Chaos wouldn't bother to attack him while he was already busy, he stepped out of the woods and walked up to the porch steps and then stood there for a second watching the other teen work.

Interestingly enough, Chaos seemed to actually know what he was doing. He had the door back up on the frame, the screws in place, and was checking to make sure that the door was going to work.

He cursed a little bit when the door knob didn't work right. But that was to be expected since it was somewhat caved in on itself.

"You'll have to change the knob." He said helpfully, the sound of his voice startling Chaos a little bit. Not so much that he wound up dropping anything, but certainly enough that he wound up jumping a little bit.

"Oh, Mysterion. What are you doing here?" Chaos asked curiously.

"I came to check up on you and the girl."

"Oh? W-Well I'm okay." Chaos said as he tried the door again before finally sighing in defeat. Mysterion was right. The knob would have to be changed.

"And the girl? How's she?" He heard Mysterion ask in a lightly impatient tone since he'd only replied to _half_ of his previous query.

"Oh, she's sleeping right now." Chaos said as he finally stopped messing with the door and just closed it. _Firmly_.

"How bad is her illness?"

"Well, it's pretty bad," Chaos said absently. "She's got a fever of one hundred and four point three." Mysterion made a growling sound of annoyance. "She's passed out, thrown up on herself, needed a bath- I had to help her out of the bath because she couldn't stand up on her own."

_"You saw her naked?!"_ Mysterion nearly shouted at him.


End file.
